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More stunning than the highlight-reel catches Kevin Pillar has made this year is the frequency with which he is making them. Rarely does a week go by without another eye-popping grab by the Blue Jays’ 26-year-old outfielder, who is putting together a Gold-Glove-worthy season.

“It’s like he’s moving before the ball is hit,” said Tim Leiper, the Jays’ first base and outfield coach. “I know he’s not, but he’s just so keen on seeing it. You watch the hitter make contact with the ball and then when you look up, any time it’s in the gap you already see him running at full speed.”

Pillar was known as a strong defender before this season, but now that he is playing every day his outfield instincts and extraordinary reads have been on full display.

“His ability to get jumps on balls is probably the best I’ve seen,” said Leiper, who coached in the minors for 20 years before joining the Jays’ staff last year. “He has better route efficiency than anybody I’ve seen. His jumps are quicker than anyone in the league, I think. When the ball’s hit you look up and he’s already in full stride. His routes to the ball are just really clean. You wouldn’t say he’s the classic burner guy, but at the same time I can’t imagine anybody covering more ground.”

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Leiper’s assessment of Pillar’s routes is also backed up by the numbers. Major League Baseball introduced Statcast, its player-tracking system, in all ballparks this year, and while the data is not currently available for every game, a look at two of Pillar’s catches from earlier this year — the Spiderman wall climb at the Rogers Centre and the full-speed wall crash in Cleveland, both in April — found near-perfect route efficiency rates of 96.2 and 97.9 per cent, respectively.

Pillar also ranks second among all outfielders with 13 defensive runs saved this season and he has made two catches deemed “remote” — less than 10 per cent chance of being made — and nine of 10 deemed “unlikely” — less than 40 per cent chance of being made — by Inside Edge Fielding, a video-scouting company that classifies all MLB plays by degree of difficulty.

Pillar credits his time in college at Cal State Dominguez Hills for honing his defensive instincts. He said his coaches emphasized the value of using batting practice to track fly balls and improve reads.

“That was the most important time for us to get our work in,” the California native recently told The Star. “It was about going hard all the time, learning to read the flight of the ball, learning to read the swing path and it’s just carried over here.”

But Pillar says it’s about more than just getting a good jump. He’ll consider who is pitching, where the catcher is set up and the tendencies of the hitter, the latter of which is discussed in detail in advanced scouting meetings before every series. He talks to Jays catchers Russell Martin and Dioner Navarro about their plans for certain hitters and will even look from the outfield to see what pitches they call to better anticipate in which direction the ball will be hit. All of that factors into his first step.

While he won’t dive or run into a wall like he does in the game, Pillar says he still takes batting practice seriously, challenging himself to take the most direct route to balls and making a mental note when he misjudges a ball.

“If you take too sharp of an angle in batting practice, now you know you gotta take a deeper angle: ‘Maybe I can’t get to this ball, maybe I’m better off trying to cut this ball off.’ Those are just things you practise every day and continue to challenge yourself on how efficient a route you can take to the ball, and you learn over time that I can’t get to this ball or I can get to this ball.”

Pillar said there wasn’t a turning point in his career when things clicked for him defensively, but he said fielding can be just as streaky and confidence-dependent as hitting and right now he feels good.

“When you’re confident out there, you tend to be a little more aggressive. When you’re not feeling as well defensively you tend to be a little passive, second-guess your instincts, and that’s the worst thing you can do on defence. You gotta be fearless.”

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